McCoy's freelance writing side hustle, started during her first semester of college in 2011, generated more work than she could personally handle, so she formalized it into a business, first under a placeholder brand and then as Express Writers.

“Before I knew it, I had more work than what I could handle. My next logical thought was, why not start a business? And Express Writers was born.”

McCoy found her first paying writing work by searching for ways to make money online and signing up on the freelance marketplace Odesk (later rebranded Upwork), where she applied to a large volume of gigs.

After building a free Weebly site and blogging regularly under her first brand, Writer4U2Hire, she began getting clients who messaged her directly for work, then for repeat work, and then to refer others.

“gained clients that directly inboxed me for work, then for repeat work, and then to ask if they could refer others to me”